Niagara Region makes another attempt to trigger Urban Sprawl

Following failed attempts to trigger urban sprawl through a court appeal and numerous amendments to Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment Plan, some of Niagara’s politicians have taken a new course.

This comes in the form of a request this past March from the Niagara’s regional council to the Ontario government to amend its Growth Plan as part of the ongoing Coordinated Review of four provincial land use plans.

The proposed changes to the Growth Plan would permit what are in effect urban boundary changes through the creation of “Special Policy Areas”.

These Special Policy Areas would all be located in the Niagara municipalities of Thorold, Welland, Niagara Falls, Fort Erie and Port Colborne. The motion attempts to resurrect a scheme from four years ago to promote urban sprawl through an extension of the urban service boundary along the Queen Elizabeth Highway (QEW) through currently-agriculturally designated lands in southern Niagara Falls.

This was supported by the City of Niagara Falls. But the proposal was dropped in order to secure provincial support for the establishment of the Niagara Regional Official Plan of a “Gateway” economic zone.

Farmlands in southern Niagara Falls, adjacent to the QEW, are interwoven in a mosaic with provincially significant wetlands, including a unusual forest, the Waverly Woodlot. It contains ancient tall old growth forests and a rare tract of Black Gum Trees – the oldest of which is 600 years old. It also hosts rare Buttonbush communities, which provide habitat for a regionally rare beautiful bird, the Wood Duck.

Agricultural groups had opposed the urban expansions of the “Gateway” in the past, but Niagara’s regional government removed these objections through a “stakeholder” consultation in which environmental groups were excluded.

In a report titled DPS-18-2017, the Niagara Region’s Planning Department justified the proposed “Special Policy Areas” as part of a more “sophisticated” approach to land use planning which avoid restrictive “limiting factors.”

The claims of superior sophistication which justify urban sprawl are belied by a massive land use supply which would not permit urban expansions under the current Growth Plan.

In the course of its research for a case resisting urban expansion, the Preservation of Agricultural Lands Society – a long-time community activist group known to many in Niagara simply as PALS – discovered that there was a larger area for urban development that had not been reported.

Previously it had been believed that the Niagara Region had a 40-year supply of urban developable land.

Now, this land supply has been greatly expanded through the victory of the Town of Fort Eire over provincial government through a court battle contesting an 800-acre area known as Douglastown. Although environmentalists had been lulled into not fighting this battle on claims forested lands would be protected, destructive assaults on this important wildlife refuge in Carolinian habitat have already begun.

In a debate at Niagara Regional Council this past March, there was only one member, the Mayor of Pelham, Dave Augustyn, who voted against the request to the province to amend the Growth Plan.

John Bacher is a veteran conservationist in Niagara, Ontario and is the Chair of Greening Niagara. For more on Greening Niagara click on – http://www.greeningniagara.ca/

NIAGARA AT LARGE encourages you to join the conversation by sharing your views on this post in the space below the Bernie quote.

A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who also share their first and last names.

For more news and commentary from Niagara At Large – an independent, alternative voice for our greater binational Niagara region – become a regular visitor and subscriber to NAL atwww.niagaraatlarge.com .

“A politician thinks of the next election. A leader thinks of the next generation.” – Bernie Sanders